


High Street Life

by Eissel



Series: Modern Day AU [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brother-Sister Relationships, Chinese Food, Chinese Language, Cousins, Developing Relationship, Eating, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Fluff, Gen, Mild Language, Reconciliation, Restaurants, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Slice of Life, Xingese Roy Mustang, nothing bad happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24493285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eissel/pseuds/Eissel
Summary: Seeing that May's been overworking herself recently, Ling decides to take her out on an impromptu mini-vacation to get her to relax a little. This of course means that he's going to annoy his older cousin in the process of course.
Relationships: Ling Yao & Roy Mustang, Mei Chan | May Chang & Ling Yao, Mei Chan | May Chang & Roy Mustang
Series: Modern Day AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769476
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	High Street Life

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to see Mei in Xiao Qinxin fashion, that is the only reason this fic exists at all.
> 
> As usual, translations are at the bottom.

“You always seem to camp out at my place.” Ling heard as the door opened. “I know you have other siblings, some of which are _actually_ your age.” 

“Yeah, but they’re all assholes, sooo...” Ling grinned, taking a hold of May’s hand as he sauntered through the doorway, only pausing so that he and May could take off their shoes. “Well, all of them are assholes except for… 5? Give or take.” He shrugged, taking a seat on the plush couch. 

“So, who’s this? And where’s Lan Fan?” Ling glanced at where Roy stood, tracking the older man’s line of sight to where it landed on May. 

“One of my few non-asshole siblings. Lan Fan’s off training with Grandpa.” Roy’s left eyebrow crept slowly upwards

“Are… Are you even allowed to curse in front of her?” That deceptively innocent remark immediately worked to bring May out of her shell, the smaller teen stamping her foot on the ground.

“I’m _14!_ I’m not a baby!” 

“Oh God, not another one.” Ling heard Roy whisper under his breath, forcing Ling to stifle a chuckle at his cousin’s expense. Roy narrowed his eyes at him though, so maybe he wasn’t as subtle as he thought. In response Ling just stuck his tongue out. Sighing, the man turned his attention back on May. “ _Anyways_ , what’s your name biǎo mèi?”

Bi-...? May Chang.” May said quietly, fiddling with her hoodie. 

“Oh, from out west, near Qinghai right?” May shot Ling a confused look, but nodded. “Cool, well, make yourself comfortable on the couch with Ling, I was just going to go out in about 2 hours for food, but you’re both free to join me, unless you’ve already eaten?”

“We skipped breakfast, took a cab.” Ling answered. “Not that I’d say no to whatever you want to feed me.”

“That’s because you’re a bottomless black hole intent on draining me of my finances.” Roy deadpanned as he left the room. “The passwords haven’t changed by the way!” He called out. 

“Last I checked, my name wasn’t Edward Elric!” Ling called back. “Neat, I can finally finish my play through of Drakenguard 3 then.” Ling mused as he dug out the PS3 from the cabinet below the TV stand. 

“He called me ‘biǎo mèi’.” May said, making Ling pause as he took the gaming system out. 

“Uh, _yeah._ ” Ling said, shooting her a crooked smile. 

“ _Why?_ ” 

“Because we’re _cousins_ May, it’s really not that hard to piece together, I thought you were supposed to be a prodigy.” Her face colored at the mention of her disliked title, and Ling felt a small pang of remorse, he had only meant to tease her a bit.

“Including you? How does that work?” Ah shit, he hadn’t expected her to not know how they were all related, he had assumed that once she realized that half the signs were in a different variant of Xingese that- 

Except May was from out west. Where they already _had_ a different variant of Xingese, so she was probably thinking that it was just yet another quirk of Central Xingese. 

Well shit. 

“You remember how a decade or so back, the South had a bout of rebellion? The one that was put down in about 5 months, not the one that lasted 2.” 

“The Yue Secession Crisis, yeah.”

“Well, obviously the participating clans got excommunicated from the Imperial Family, but they still had imperial blood _somewhere_ in their family trees, and a lot more than you would think are still directly related to us. Roy’s from one of those families, and just to simplify things, we just say we’re cousins.”

“And you brought me here today… why?”

“You’ve been stressed for the past… what, _month_ because of your alkahestry exams _?_ ” Ling shrugged. “You’re the only sibling of ours I can say that I like without lying. Besides, you’ve helped me out with tons of stuff before. I wanted to help you out when I saw you were struggling. And you looked like you really needed a break.”

“I wasn’t that bad.” May denied.

“Lan Fan was concerned that someone would have to sedate you.” Ling deadpanned. “But _sure_ , you weren't ‘that bad’.” He booted up the console, and jumped on the couch. “Ugh, these are the _best_ couches.” Ling groaned as he sunk into the plush pillows. “Hop up here May, what did you want to play? He’s got pretty much everything.”

“Central Fiction?”

“Yeah.”

“Toss a controller over here then.” She said as she plopped down beside him. Grinning at her, Ling handed her the white controller, and claimed the black for himself. “I call Platinum.” She said as she caught the controller. 

“Of course you’d pick Platinum.” He groused, and tried to think of a good match-up for that character, when his thought process was interrupted by a pillow landing on his head. 

“Good on you to finally pay attention.” Roy teased. “I’ve been calling you for a good 5 minutes or so now. If you’re not too busy trying to think of good matchups, I wanted to remind you that we were gonna head out soon.” Ling gave him a blank look. “To have some food, yeah? You said you guys skipped breakfast, and I doubt you want to raid my pantry right now.”

“They finally started to build good restaurants around here then?” Ling asked, putting the controller down. 

“Where would we be going?” May asked simultaneously.

“1. There’s always been good options to eat out around here, and don't say that like you wouldn’t shovel it into your mouth _anyways_ , and 2. It’s a smaller Yue style place, if you both don’t mind that is.” Ling craned his neck to look up at May.

“How ‘bout it?”

“Well, I’ve always wanted to try some...”

“Guess that’s settled then.” Roy shrugged. “Yell for me when you’re done packing up, I have a call to make.” As the older man disappeared, Ling snatched up the controller and selected Mu, grinning as he heard May squawk.

“You’re an ass!”

“I know~” Ling snickered. May pouted, but confirmed that she was ready nonetheless. As the countdown ended, Ling yelped as she kicked him in the shin, letting her take the early lead unhindered. Cursing under his breath, he hit her character back with a counter, smirking as he heard May grunt in frustration. 

* * *

“Another match!” May yelled, hitting him in the chest as Ling mockingly held her controller over her head. 

“Nope~! I won fair and square!”

“You cheated! You _cheated!_ ”

“Kids.” The two paused as Roy cleared his throat. One raised eyebrow later, Ling sheepishly put the controller down, and May stepped off of Ling’s feet. “Now that you two are done fighting, I wanted to tell you that I was ready to head out now.”

“Oh, well, uh-” Ling blushed, faintly remembering that Roy had implied that they were to pack up. “We’ll just put this away now.” Ling quit the game and shut the PS3 down, still failing to conceal his blush as his older cousin looked on with a slight smirk. 

“Well, grab your shoes, it’s just a short walk down the block.” Which, by Roy standards could actually mean anywhere between “a short walk down the block”, or a mile downtown. 

“We’re not taking your car?” May asked, referring to the BMW sitting outside the house. 

“It’s really only a short walk, no need for the car.” Roy said as he laced up his boots. “Well, let’s get going.” Ling and May headed out first, Roy locking the door and testing it before taking the lead himself. “This is your first time in the area, right May?” She nodded shyly, burying herself slightly in her white hoodie. Roy grinned at her. “Don’t worry too much about it, Ling was worse than you his first time here. Thought he knew his way around without my help.” May, the _traitor,_ perked up at that bit of new information, and sent a smirk over his way.

“Well, at least I actually go out places.” 

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean Yao?”

“I actually have a social life, instead of sticking my head in dusty old books all day!” Ling jeered, yelping as Roy flicked him on the forehead, and May jammed an elbow between his ribs. 

“Ling, one day you’ll learn not to piss off the people who can _apply_ what they learn to real life.” Roy huffed, and smiled at May. “Nice technique there. You do alkahestry?”

“I do. Do you?” Roy shook his head.

“Nah, I went for alchemy.” May’s eyes went wide, and Ling suppressed a groan. Why were all the people he hung around with such _nerds_? Still, he figured, it was at least kinda fun to watch them geek out, and May deserved to have some fun on this little trip, since that was the whole purpose Ling had braved her wrath in the first place. 

* * *

“Ah, we’re here.” Roy said, thanking the receptionist as she let them in. “ _Thank you._ ” Ling frowned as Roy spoke in Yue, the strange pronunciations making his mind pause to process the words (the meager amount that he had managed to coax Roy into teaching him anyways) fully. 

The lady pointed at Ling and May, and had a spirited conversation with Roy. In the midst of it, he caught snippets of the conversation, “ _my cousins_ ”, “ _Imperial_ ” and “ _outing_ ” were the phrases he recognized. 

“Yue sounds a lot like Rao.” May said from beside him. 

“Well, same region and all that. You can tell from the sorta flat _a_ sound at the ends of phrases.” May’s eyes sparkled. 

“You’re right! I can’t believe I didn’t realize that… Especially when I relied on a similar method a lot to tell you all apart in the palace.” Ling raised an eyebrow at her, and she flushed. 

“Well, you and Lan Fan both tend to use _erhua_ a lot while you talk, like a lot of people from up north, but 7th Sister and 9th Brother who live more to the south don’t have that, and they have more emphasis on tones.”

“You don’t differentiate between tones.” Ling said casually. “A lot of clans out west do that.” After another 2 minutes, it seemed as though Roy’s conversation had finally come to an end as they were all ushered inside. “Wow, this place _really_ likes its gold.” Ling commented, squinting from the bright lights. “It’s like I’m back in Longjing again.”

“Some of the designs are inspired by the Imperial Palace in Longjing, yes.” Roy commented, spying a free table, and sitting them down. “I’ll order for you guys.”

“There’s no need to do that.” May protested as she sat down and smoothened out her skirt.

“Well neither of you have been to yum cha before, so...” He shrugged. When a waiter approached, he had a short conversation with the man, as Ling decided to take the opportunity to look around the restaurant.

It was _very_ clearly modeled after the Imperial Palace, what with the load bearing beams carved to have exquisite floral designs, the hipped-gable roof, and the abundance of reds and golds. It was blatantly obvious that they were trying to pander to the smaller, but richer Xingese expat community in the area. Even with the clear inspiration however, it was clear that the owners were from the south, and proud of it. The floral carvings, for instance, weren’t of any flower that Ling had seen in the capital, and he guessed that they were probably from the South.

"What's the purpose of the paper?" May asked, jolting Ling back to reality. 

"When they come around with the carts, they'll mark off what we order on this sheet so that they know how much we, or I suppose, _I_ really, owe." 

"That's a pretty cool system." Long said, glancing at the sheet, despite the fact that- he squinted at it. "I can read this." Roy raised an eyebrow.

"Of course you can. The languages share an alphabet."

"But they're not mutually intelligible." May argued, having cottoned on to Ling's confusion. 

"Point, but Yue is often much more a spoken language than a written one. In everyday life, we just use Xingese to write. It's easier." He admitted.

"Oh, okay…" May said, then pointed at an item. "So what's this then?"

"That's a custard bun with salted yolk filling. It's one of my childhood favorites." A smile spread across Roy's face. "Though I think you might prefer something a bit sweeter than that."

"I'm not a _child._ "

"But you grew up in Qinghai. I know a couple of Western expats, they all tend to have a sweet tooth." May blushed, and determinedly looked away. Ling smirked at her, and pointed to an entry of his own.

"What's this then?"

"Those are beef balls. Not my favorite, but it's classic dim sum." The conversation continued to flow like that, with Long and May asking about different foods and Roy providing a short explanation.

During one of these mini-lectures, a woman set down a teapot, to which Roy interrupted himself to thank her, accepting the item and placing it on the table. As she walked away, the older man poured out some of the water into a glass cup, and started to rinse the utensils. 

“Oh, I heard about this from Sister Huángfŭ.” May whispered to him. “I guess it’s tradition.” Ling nodded absentmindedly, the effects of his skipping of breakfast clearly starting to catch up to him. Thankfully, as though they had otherworldly timing, the carts started coming by their table just as Roy finished rinsing the utensils. 

“What tea do you two usually take? I normally take mine straight black you see, and this pot is for the entire table, so…” Ling could almost imagine the expressions on his cousin’s coworker’s faces as they tried whatever beverage Roy had ordered for the table.

His cousin certainly had a… _bracing_ taste when it came to his teas. 

“Jasmine.” Ling replied, which was absolutely the furthest thing away from his own personal taste, but this outing was for May’s sake, not his own. 

“The same.” May said, eyeing Ling with a look that he _might_ have said was filled with some measure of concern if she wasn’t… well, May Chang, one of his direct competitors for the Xingese throne. 

“Alright then.” Roy placed the orders for the tea, and leveled Ling with a look. The younger male ducked his head, unused to the sharp scrutiny. He was the heir to the Yao clan dammit, his facades were _flawless_.

Unless he went up again Lan Fan or Grandpa Fu. 

And he could apparently add May and Roy to that list as well. Though he wasn’t all that terribly surprised since alkahestry was bullshit and Roy _had_ literally worked as a private investigator.

“What’s with the stares? What, do I have something on my face?” Still, might as well deflect as much as possible. 

“You _do_ realize that no one here buys that garbage, right Ling?” 

“May’s right you know.” Roy offered helpfully. “So, out with it. What’s bugging you?”

“Nothing! I swear!”

“Bull.” May said, poking him between the ribs. “Now, I’m not Lan Fan, but even a complete stranger could tell that was a lie.” She poked him again, firmer, and Ling realized that her poking was a warning: If he didn’t fess up, she’d jab him in a pressure point. A glance over to Roy proved that his cousin seemingly had no plans to tell May to stop with her barbaric handling of long’s body. Sighing, more out of habit than actual annoyance, Ling pouted, and leaned back in his chair.

“With family like you two, who needs enemies?” He groused. “But I guess it’s just stress really. The Elders are kinda breathing down my neck a little.” He threw up a hand in annoyance. “They keep treating me like a kid.”

“Oh, they treat _you_ like a kid huh?” May asked blandly. 

“You know what I mean.”

“While I would love to listen to you two air your woes about Imperial Family Life ™,” Roy started, “I would also like to eat. Well, I’d like to let Ling get whatever it is he has dealing with off his chest _and_ eat. Preferably in that order.” Ling groaned.

“You don’t _get_ it.”

“I can tell.” Roy said dryly. “Grew up in Amestris for most of my life, remember? I don’t have the baggage from your “ _lovely”_ father. Mom was right, all the crazy really does come from that side of the family.” May and Ling shot him half-hearted glares.

“It’s really not that bad.” May weakly defended, her mind clearly remembering times when it _was_ that bad, just as Ling was.

He winced, recalling the time he had smashed a vase over Brother Bǎi’s head. Not one of his best moments. 

“Yes it is.” Roy stated, stopping a waiter as they passed by, and pointed to several baskets. “Now, get all that stuff out of your heads. We have food to finish. Or in Ling’s case, absorb directly into his bloodstream.” Roy moved deftly across the table, pouring the tea (which Ling had _not_ noticed had been filled. He suspected that Roy had added the tea leaves during the prior conversation) into Ling and May’s cups, and opening up the baskets of food. “Well? You two are both teenagers, I know better than to stand between you two and food.” 

Ling swore he heard Roy mutter: “Something Ed has beaten into me at this point...” But the sight of the tantalizing food in front of him shut down all mental faculties not completely dedicated to eating. 

He took up a bun with the nicely designed chopsticks (really, the staff had gone _out_ on making this place like a mini-Imperial Palace) and bit into it. 

“I’ve died and gone to Tiān.” Ling groaned. 

“Ew, you’re drooling, that’s gross.” May cringed away, scooting away in fear of her skirt and shirt getting stained. 

“You’d drool too once you tasted this! Ugh, I wish I could hire the chef to cook for me. But, y’know. Southern Pride and all that.”

“Damn straight.” Roy smirked, snatching up the dumpling Ling had been aiming for.

“You’re an ass, I hope you know that.”

“I’ve been called worse.” Roy snarked back. 

“Like what?” May asked.

“We’re in polite company May.” Roy said giving her an askance look. “And I’m in the middle of eating, I’d like to _not_ be thrown out before I get a chance to finish.” She shrugged. 

“As long as you tell me later. I want ammunition to aim at Brother Xióng.”

“Your appearance really does _not_ give away your personality.” He commented.

“The Yaos may the masters of lies, but the Changs aren’t half bad ourselves.” She smiled, picking up some dumplings with her chopsticks. “This is really good. What are these called again?”

“Har Gow. If you want, before you both leave, I’ll pack you some homemade versions of your favorites.”

“Oh _yes please._ ” Ling said, being met with a sharp pinch to his side, courtesy of May.

“And what, bankrupt him? I’d like to have a place to rest up from the stresses of Imperial Family Life-” she paused, took a glance at Roy, seemingly figured that the risk was worth it, and- “...™.”

“Oh not you too May.”

“Westerners and Southerners gotta stick together.”

“Overthrow the yolk of Northern oppression.” May agreed savagely, leaning over to steal a Xiao Long Bao from his plate. Ling shielded it with his body, which was of no real obstacle to the practitioner alkahestrist. 

“Evil. The both of you are evil. I should have never introduced you two to each other.”

“Did you hear that May?”

“You mean the buzzing in the background?” The two of them threw smug looks at Ling. 

“Exactly.” Ling pouted more, and sunk into his chair again. Clearly stifling his laughter, Roy ordered from another cart, pacifying Ling as more food appeared for him to devour. 

* * *

“I’d offer to drive you two back home, but I doubt I’d really be welcome.” Ling shrugged. 

“It’s no big deal.”

“It’s okay if we come over again right?” May asked. Roy grinned crookedly, and ruffled her hair, drawing a growl out from the short teen. 

“Sure, but next time, give me some warning. It wouldn’t do for you two to walk in on some more... _adult_ activities if you don’t give me a heads up.”

“Oh _ew._ Of all the things I never wanted to learn about, your sex life was _definitely_ on that list.” Ling said, matching looks of disgust on his and May’s faces.

“Just don’t come crying to me for tips, and I think you’ll never have to hear about it again!” He chirped. “Anyways, you two should hurry up on outta here before they start raising a fuss.” He smiled down at them, then hugged them quickly before withdrawing. “See you two next week?”

“Honestly, if our brothers and sisters act the way they were acting this morning, we might be back earlier than that.” Ling muttered. “See ‘ya whenever though Roy.”

“Yeah, yeah, see you two.” Roy left with a parting wave and a closed door. Ling hailed a cab, and helped May in. 

“So, how was it?”

“Oh, the food you mean? Well, it’s good. Obviously.” She gestured to the bags she was holding.

“No, the whole experience.” A thoughtful smile spread across her face. Sighing, she put down her bags, quickly hugged Ling and then withdrew to pick them back up again. 

“Thanks Ling.” He grinned at her, and ruffled her hair, quickly pulling away when she glared murderously at him.

“Anytime May. Anytime. That’s what family’s for.”

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  biǎo mèi (表妹): Manadarin - Younger female cousin w/t different last name  
>   
> Tiān (天): Mandarin - Chinese concept of Heaven  
>   
> The great irony of this fic lies in the fact that the words that needed translating were all in Mandarin despite mostly taking place in a restaurant where most people should be speaking in Cantonese. (Also I majorly simplified yum cha etiquette in this fic, please don't take it as a hard guide for what to do if you're going out for yum cha)  
>   
> Linguistics Rant:  
>   
> Rao by the way, was Vietnamese, or at least an ancestor of Vietnamese. Western Xing in turn, pretty much just had a wholesale Qinghai accent with more emphasis on the parts of the accent derived from Tibetan, which doesn't differentiate between tones as much as any of the Chinese languages, hence Ling commenting on the fact that May doesn't distinguish between tones. Yue is used as the stand in for Cantonese (and by that I mean Cantonese proper, not the languages within the Cantonese language family like Taishanese).  
>   
> Now, on the topic of erhua and the a sound. Mandarin speakers (and Northerners in general) often use the sound "-er" at the ends of certain phrases. This isn't a common pattern in Cantonese (and of Southern speakers in general), and instead an "-a" sound is most often applied to the ends of phrases  
>   
> Linguistics Rant Over!  
>   
> I did aesthetic/character boards for this fic!  
> [Ling's](https://writ-eissel.tumblr.com/post/619741165806305280/a-ruler-is-nothing-without-his-people), [May's](https://writ-eissel.tumblr.com/post/619741362161647617/my-clan-is-depending-on-me), [Roy's](https://writ-eissel.tumblr.com/post/619741570052259841/i-was-blinded-to-the-damage-i-caused)


End file.
